The chapter opens with a discussion between the elders and the young master . The elders want to know if the young man is friends with the old master. The old master tells the elders that he is a friend of the new master, and the elders wonder if he could ask the old man to tell him about the alchemist association. The elder tells the old masters that they have learned that the alchemist is very powerful now, and they wonder whether the young men could ask him about it. The older masters wonder whether they could ask nie li to tell them. The young master tells them that he has no interest in helping them, and that he will not help them if they ask him himself. He tells the elder masters that he was trying to talk to them, but that they are not interested in him. He then tells the older masters that she is a whore and that she should be thrown out of the family meeting. He says that if she does not want to be tossed out, she should get lost now. Shen fei tells him that the elder master has asked her to cancel the marriage settlement, and she says that she will let him know later. She says that the marriage was never her idea, and if she were to lose, she would go with the older master. She adds that women are just "toys" for her to play around with, and this marriage settlement is not her concern. She asks the elders if they know that their family offers her as a "toy" for their benefit. They do not, she says, because she is not a woman, but a toy to play with. She then asks if she has gone insane, and says that they all heard her.